This blog is my personal web diary where I write anything happened around me and any learnings. I work as a software test engineer in Bangalore. I have great positive attitude and enthusiasm. I believe nothing is impossible. (*Conditions Apply)

Friday, August 10, 2012

My stint with interviews and my first job ..

In our college (VEC Bellary, now renamed to RYMEC Bellary), mostly, there was no On-Campus interviews, but we were called to other college for a combined off-campus selection. The first ever campus for which, our college was called was Infosys (@PDACE Gulbarga), and I was not eligible (I had 56% in 10th).. In that campus, 7 of my friends got selected .. There after, In most of the off-campus, I was eligible and I attended all of them .. remembering those days ..

Note : Some of the dates/happenings may be slightly incorrect, as its been almost 8 years now ..

1. Subex @ BVB Hubli (July 2004) : I along with many friends reached BVB Hubli (from Bellary) in early morning.. Place was bit crowded, so where do I take some rest?.. I got an idea.. I went to boys hostel, and asked someone, is there anyone from Bihar? And got referred to Sxxx and I rested sometime in his room.. and guess what? He knew one of my brother in Patna :) and Now He is friend of one of my colleague as well .. Well, I didn't know much about Pointers in C, and that is what was was asked in first round.. I was not selected, but one of my friend Rxx was selected there ..

2. iGate @ BVB Hubli (August 2004) : Was selected in aptitude test but later got rejected in interview. I think, no one from my college was selected...

3. Polaris @ Bapuji Davangere (October 2004) : Many of our friends went there .. Three of us were selected in 1st round.. later 2 of us got selected in GD .. and I was rejected in last round (interview) .. Interviewer asked, you are from ECE branch so why do you want to join software company? I had said, sir, actually there are not much job in hardware/vlsi/embedded domain, hence I am trying in software industry as well :) Sxx was selected there ...

4. Mascon @ Bapuji Davangere (November 2004) : I was selected in first two rounds along with one of my friend .. In interview round got rejected .. I thought I did very good .. my friend (Pxx) got selected.. I later talked to interview panel, and said, I answered all the question, but then why did you rejected me?.. I said, there is partiality going on between Bapuji students and VEC Bellary students..They considered and said, actually there was a tie between you an another student from Bapuji, and as he has better academics, he was selected, But let us take one more round for you both .. And that guy was called back, and was asked to go for another round.. To me, interviewer asked very tough questions on Java (He had complete reference in Java handy and was asking questions from book).. I was not selected .. The HR person gave me his business card and said, you come to Bangalore and meet me.. let me see If I can do something .. and for doing these all process, I had to stay one more night in Davangere..

5. Mistral @ Bapuji Davangere (December 2004) : I was selected in first two rounds (I think I was only one selected from my college), but again got rejected in interview.. I remember one funny thing happened during interview.. He asked me about some law, for which I said the overview (round about answer) and then added, sir actually, it was one year back I had studied this subject, hence forgot the statement.. He said, boss you studied this subject in 6th sem ..few months back .. :)

6. Integra micro @ BEC Bagalkot (December 2004) : This was interesting .. There was 5 day state level VLSI training workshop by Sandeepani/Xilinx in my college, and I was active volunteer (Arranging the stay for various faculties from various engineering colleges across Karnataka and other help required). Along with volunteering, I was also taking the course as well.. On 4th day around 12 PM, I got this info that there is campus in BEC bagalkot (Had no idea how to go there) tomorrow morning .. I rushed to bus stand, and somehow reached to Bagalkot .. I was selected in first round along with one of my senior (Sxx) .. It was late evening, when I had second round, where in I could choose between Java and C++, and had to write 1 big program..I selected C++ and it was gone .. both of us were not selected ..

7. Sutherland @ VEC Bellary (Jan 2005) .. Yes!! this was in campus .. I was selected in 1st round.. second round was to give speech for few minutes on some topic .. I was rejected.. I think my friend Hxx was selected ..

On 19th feb 2005, I came to Bangalore along with Tilak.. searched room in one day, and next day my other project mate (and room mate and my best buddies Rajesh and Dinakar) also came.. We had to do project in BHEL bangalore, and also one more project on VHDL/CPLD in BCE(?) consultancy in Mathekere, Bangalore .. And here comes few more interview failures ..

I do not remember, If I gave 1-2 interview till my engineering got over on June 10, 2005 ... We used to travel to Bellary in between for few days for various assignments, seminar, project, internals and main exams.. I joined NIIT Vijaynagar for J2EE course .. and the classes were started on 14th June 2005.. I met here with Ramesh and Fatima .. Also, few other friends like Vishwas, Rohit, Vijay were doing course here, but in different batches.. I had to change two bus from Srinagar to reach Vijaynagar..

There was a south India C++ competition (for NIIT students only) and I was second !! (Wow C++ ? ..). There was another competition to design two Java projects 1. Calculator 2. sql query analyzer .. I got second prize in that also.. I remember working whole night for this project (Yes!! whole night and then next day class ..) .. My course got over in August 2005, and as promised, NIIT had provided few campus interviews.. In between I wrote few other PSU exams.. I don't exactly remember which interview was provided through NIIT

10. ISRO @ Bangalore (June 2005) - Got selected in written test (for Scientist post) and there was only one interview, which if selected I could have been a scientist and could have been part of Chandrayan !! but alas!! There was something very interesting here also ..

I had my interview in ISRO office (in August 2005) @ Airport road Bangalore at around 11 AM.. In morning I had prepared all the documents in a file folder and I had kept interview call letter in my pocket .. When I reached the venue (@9.30 AM), I realized I forgot the file in home only .. fortunately, my friend Rajesh was at home .. I called him and asked to bring the file ASAP (It takes 1 Hr+ to reach airport road from Srinagar) .. He reached in 1 hr.. and then when I was about to enter for interview, I was told I need to submit few document photocopy, (which I didn't have!). I got it from ISRO office only (You can imagine how hard it would have been to convince and get a photocopy in so secured ISRO office !!) .. Earlier, I had inquired and found one of my distant relative's relative working in ISRO bangalore, I had got his number and had asked him about interview format .. But still, when I saw 10+ people in big interview room, I was probably frightened by the bombardment of questions and could not answer satisfactorily .. and I was not selected here also ..

16. IBM @ MVJ college, whitefield (was provided by NIIT) (October 2005) -- Was selected in written test along with Bishwas, but I was rejected in interview round, and Bishwas got selected ..

I am missing two other companies for which I wrote the test .. then there was 19th Campus interview by NIIT @ Richmond road for Afila Tech .. Before this something very important .. just to understand my situation and context ..

It was in Feb 2004, I had gone to my home (Purnia, Bihar), after 5th sem exam. and because off-campus was supposed to happen between the semesters, I didn't go to home till October 2005.. It was very very frustrating period (I being one of the top 3 student @ my college, and doing so much hard work in Java/J2EE, is not getting job and that too getting rejected in last round..)

My family asked me to come home for Deewali (on 1 Nov 2005) and I had taken ticket to go to home on 26th October .. I was sad, that I will be going to home after 1.8 years without a job .. and then suddenly, there was this off campus from Afila on 22nd October..

19. Afila @ Bangalore (provided by NIIT on 22nd October 2005) : I cleared written test .. and then was called fro GD (It was next day!! I remember arguing with Mahesh - who also got selected later on the topic given "Should the compiler fix the errors as well in place of just reporting it?)" and you know what was my argument "No... somethings should be left for humans to do .. If everything will be done by computer then what software engineers will do !! .. and also added, computer can never be as intelligent as human.. whereas most of the candidates were supporting it, by saying it can be done ..its benefit and how it can be achieved.. One more funny thing happened .. our CEO Amar mutt (I didn't know that) had announced the successful candidates name (Of course, I was one of them, You know that!!).. and after that, I asked him, Sir, May I know your name.. He said Amar, I asked, May I know your designation, and He said He is CEO of this company with big smile :) ..

Well, offer was not made on 23rd, as HR round was left .. HR round happened on 24th Where Rxx (HR Manager) took my interview and offered me ... I simply took the offer letter and went to bath room and cried a lot .. I didn't bother about salary offered as 8500 (stipend for 2 months), didn't bother that its testing role in networking field, didn't bother that joining date is 26th October (When I had to go home after 1.8 Years!!) .. Came out, called my mom and informed .. called Vineet and Rajesh and informed .. when I reached room, I see Vineet has already come to my room with sweets.. I was very happy .. But then suddenly I realized, I want to go home now.. I was fearing that, If I will ask to extend the joining date (I was scheduled to come back in Bangalore on 13th November), they may hire someone else and I might get rejected .. But somehow I called to HR (Rxx) and said this story .. she said, not a big deal . but don't delay it by mid Nov, you join on 7th November .. I said Fine .. And luckily I got the return ticket, so that I could reach Bangalore on 6th Nov.. and then I joined Afila on 7th November 2005 ..

It was a great day !! Thanks Amar .. Thanks Afila .. Without you, I have not been here, where I am today!!

I read it once again to end up being nostalgic. It is very hard to forget the first offer letter. Salary doesn't matter at all. It is the offer letter in physical sense: its size, the letter head, the font in which it is typed, the word congratulations! the signature of the authority, how many times the paper was folded, your salutation, your name and finally the fragrance and aroma of the paper on which it is printed. Each one of these could rejuvenate us. First offer letter who can forget !!!

Ashish, I really want to comend you for the relentless effort you have put in to get a job and the joy of expressing it. I somehow got to your blog while browsing and felt it was time worth reading. Hope this post finds you in good harmony. All the best!

About Me

My name is Ashish Kumar Jha. I belong to Bhatotar, Purnia, Bihar, India. I did my B.E in Electronics from VEC Bellary in 2005 and M.S in Computer Science from Manipal University in 2013. Currently, I am working as Software Development Engineer in Test - II at Microsoft (MSIDC), Hyderabad. I Believe in Simple living and great thinking .. A cool person, Non-egoist, Non-judgmental, Don't believe in "Branded Only", and trying to Spread Unconditional Love, Which gives the meaning and purpose to my life.